A common notion that traveling to other stars will take generations upon generations of people living and dying on a spaceship is only true if the spaceship travels relatively slow (in relation to the speed of light).
An important thing to consider is that "An object traveling AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT arrives to its destination in an instant, from its point of view" . TRAVEL TO OTHER STARS COULD TAKE A VERY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME if we got the spaceship to travel close to the speed of light.
An important thing to consider is that "An object traveling AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT arrives to its destination in an instant, from its point of view" . TRAVEL TO OTHER STARS COULD TAKE A VERY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME if we got the spaceship to travel close to the speed of light.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time slows down relative to the observer the closer you get to speed of light, so they theorize that if you travel at the speed of light, time stops and that for a photon, particle of light, from its point of view, its absorbed as soon as its emitted, ie in an instant.
So, let's say someone gets into a ship traveling at light speed to a star 5 light years away. FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE, it takes them 5 years to travel there, but from their perspective, it's instant?
Well, then that would make star travel a piece of cake, because if you can get a starship very close to speed of light, trip will seem VERY short ... ?
That does make sense, because time slows down, so 5 years on Earth will seem like MUCH LESS than 5 years to the people on the ship itself
Serge Bronstein
6/6/2015
Serge Bronstein
6/6/2015
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